Akane's Family
by DoomStrider96
Summary: Hi, my name is Akane and this is my story about how I found, fought for and bled with a family I could love! also I'm dragging Isobu along for the ride.
1. Chapter 1

**Greetings everyone, this is technically my second fanfic even though the other one is . . . unfinished . . . I will finish it! eventually . . . in any case, i have no idea what to rate these things so T for safety and bump it later if needed (this story an't that serious so i shouldn't need to) also, I appologise for A) mistakes . . . i editited while writing as opposed to doing it later so i probably missed a lot of mistakes. B) the length of this first chapter . . . i needed to make you, the readers, clear on why the story is named "Akane's" story . . . specifically that name. Kudos to the people that get the references to other shows save for Psycoh-pass . . . that one is obvious. hope you all enjoy and let's hope i get more done on this story before i'm distracted by another story!.**

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Blackness . . . the first thing I see after I wake up is blackness. Make no mistake, I'm not dead . . . at least . . . I wasn't dead last I checked. Where are my manners, hi . . . I'm Lucy . . . or at least I _was_ Lucy . . . not so much anymore but I'll get to that in a bit . . . okay a long bit . . . we have stuff to go through first.

So as I was saying, I went to bed last night, fell peacefully to sleep in my nice, warm bed and when I woke up an indeterminable amount of time later, the entire world was just blackness . . . the only thing I could see were my hands in front of my face and . . . a turtle . . . a three tailed turtle . . . a three tailed, talking turtle . . . I squeaked when it spoke.

"Who are you!?" the talking turtle growled (yes I know, a growling turtle) "And what have you done with me!?" the deep rumbling voice was absolutely dripping with malice and all the ways that a turtle half my size could kill me if I didn't answer

"Erm . . . I'm Lucy and I was about to ask what you did with me . . . where the hell are we?" stood up and looked down at the turtle whilst he looked back up at me, glaring holes into my head.

"Lucy . . . what an odd name" said the talking turtle and causing me to gape at him. He a freaking talking turtle, is telling me I have an odd name

"And pray tell what _your_ name is? Mr turtle" I snapped back, letting the talking turtle fume

"I am Isobu, the three tailed beast and terror of mortals" growled the talking turtle

"Oh my, you are so fearsome Isobu, you are a whooping half my height! And you look like a sea turtle with three tails" I said, sarcasm dripping from my statement

"I have no idea why I am currently not my normal size nor shape!" growled Isobu

"So is Isobu a common name where you are from? Lucy is kinda common where I'm from . . . well, I'm the only Lucy I know but it's not a rare name" I said, sighing as I sat down in front of Isobu, tucking my knees into my chest

"No . . . I am the only one with my name" the turtle said, his eyes never having left me, at least he was now looking down at me.

"You know, you sound like one of those Japanese Yokai monsters" I said, sighing into my knees. "You know, maybe we could have had an epic battle of epic proportions as you went on a rampage in some village and i stood there to meet you with a shining katana, 'Isobu! Today is the day your rampage of evil ends!' I would say before we engage in an epic battle blade to . . . leg? Claw? Claw works, we engage in an epic battle blade to claw from dawn until dusk and dawn again and at the end, we come to and understanding, you my brother of the battlefield and I your sister . . ."

"You talk a lot . . . and you have quite the imagination" I giggled at Isobu's comment

"I was a writer before I . . . I what? Am I dead? Are we dead?" I looked at Isobu, somehow expecting the talking turtle to have the answers I want

"I refuse to be dead" the turtle said as he looked around him

"Maybe there is an exit? Maybe we can find it and get out of here?" I said, bouncing to my feet and taking off in a random direction.

I wasn't really sure what to expect but Isobu trundled along with me, managing to somehow match my stride as we travelled in the direction I had picked.

It had been an indeterminate period of time that we walked, my internal clock said I had been walking for approximately all of eternity when finally I said something

"Have we seen that patch of blackness before? I think we are walking in circles" I think I may have been starting to black out . . . pun intended

"No, we aren't walking in circles and I'm starting to think we'd likely get closer to finding an exit if we were" rumbled Isobu "Why are you being nice to me kid?" I stopped dead in my tracks and Isobu stopped a few paces in front of me so he could look into my face

"What do you mean?" I ask, and I was positively sure he was referring to the earlier mention of being a fearful beast

"I terrorised, I burnt villages to the ground and you have already proclaimed yourself the heroine . . . if this were my world, we likely would be fighting by now and since I can't be killed by mortal means . . . It would end with your death and the village's destruction" Isobu narrowed his eyes at me

"We aren't in your world . . . and I don't think you are evil, just . . . powerful? I don't know your strength . . . all I know is" I stop to gesture expansively around me "We both come from a world so much different from the one we find ourselves in but to be perfectly honest . . . if I have to spend all of eternity here in what may very well be hell . . . at least I have company and the company could be worse" I said, turning around and looking at the empty landscape. Isobu grunted in response to my little speech

"I don't want to be trapped here forever" he said, fear tinging his voice and I realised that he probably had a fear of being trapped with no way out but i had already resigned myself to my fate and was mostly just humoring the turtle.

"What about if you pick a direction and walk in a perfectly straight line and I walk in a perfectly straight line opposite to yours. That way if one of us finds the exit we can retrace our steps and keep going until we find the other and go through the exit" I said, trying to remain upbeat despite the fact I was already marking a spot of blackness to curl up and sleep for the next million centuries

"Who is to say you won't just take the exit and leave me here?" asked the turtle, suspicion showing in his adorable turtle face.

"I could say the same about you, you could just leave me to walk for all eternity here too, what about if we just keep going and I'll let you pick a direction this time" I sighed and Isobu turned around and walked in a random direction that may or may not have been the one we came from, it's all blackness to me.

We walked and walked and walked for god knows how long but this time it was slightly different. Isobu occasionally asked me things about my old life and I told him. I was a writer who had never been published, I never got to my twenty first birthday and I lived alone with barely a few online friends to keep me company . . . in essence, I was a dead girl walking but that's okay, I didn't have anything to live for. Turns out Isobu was supposed to be meters tall and towering over villages, he was supposed to be quite different in appearance too with a gray shell and an odd face with spiky coral instead of a mouth or something of the sort . . . he wasn't so good at describing his appearance to me and I kept trying to imagine him as the monster he once was but the adorable turtle that I could nearly ride was just too ingrained in my mind.

I had no need for food, sleep or anything really, I could have kept walking for the rest of eternity but eventually I got bored and plopped down and the ground with a solid "oompf!" as my poor tushy impacted with the solid darkness I was walking on.

"I could go for a soft drink about now" I said as I tucked my knees to my chest again

"Soft drink?" asked my companion

"It was a type of drink that was common in my world . . . it was fizzy and had some sweet flavours depending on the brand . . . this one brand I loved was called 'Fanta' and the makers of it added some orange flavours to it to give that fruity taste . . . I really wish i could have a bottle appear right in front of me" it was at this moment that my wish was granted . . . literally . . . a bottle of Fanta appeared right in front of me, the orange colouring of the drink almost glowing in the blackness.

Isobu and I both stared at the bottle as I gingerly picked it up, uncapped the bottle with a hiss and took a careful sip

"It's warm Fanta but Fanta . . . I wonder . . ." the thought just occured to me and since I was getting a little loopy in the blackness that I was willing to test the theory out, I did. I 'de-summoned' the bottle of fanta by imagining it simply disappearing and then I imagined an ice cold variant of fanta appearing in my hand. I of of course, took a long hearty swig and noticed the taste was exactly as I remembered it but only as I remembered it. My next thought experiment was to have the fanta taste like pepsi without changing the look of the liquid and precisely what I wanted to happen, happened.

"Isobu-kun . . . is that the proper honorific? Anyway, I think I might be in control of this world" I said, looking up at the turtle standing above me

"If that were the case we would have found an exist almost as soon as we started looking" he rumbled

"Yeah . . . unless the one person who could make it appear had already resigned to her fate and didn't expect it to appear nor especially wanted it to . . ." I said and looked down. "I don't know where we will end up but shall we leave together?" I asked, looking directly into the eyes of the turtle

"Yes . . . that would be preferable . . ." I stood up and looked around, closed my eyes and imagined a gate appearing, I imagined one of those Japanese Torii gates and that in the middle of it was a shimmering blue puddle of water.

"Through the stargate?" I said as I looked at the horizontal wall of water and then back down to my partner in crime

"I will admit . . . it has been . . . nice to have met you, Rushi-chan" I giggled at the japanese pronunciation of my name even though he had said it perfectly beforehand.

"Same to you, Isobu-kun" with that we walked, in unison, through the water and out the other side.

I gingerly opened my eyes and was immediately assaulted by whiteness so I screwed my eyes shut again but I persisted and eventually I could get a vague look around the room I found myself in . . . I was in a hospital room . . . and I was tied down . . . and I felt a lot smaller than I used to be.

Not long after my wake up, people shuffled into my room and the tubes and what not keeping me from biting my tongue and all that jazz were removed. A glass of water was pressed to my lips and I got a sip of a bit and slowly I drank the whole glass. Then I had no time to ask questions because a woman shouted at me

"My baby!" she practically screamed, tears rolling down her eyes as she moved in to glomp me with a bear hug, despite still being tied to the bed. "Honey, what's the matter?" the woman asked me again, pulling back and noticing my frown on my face

"Umm . . . w-who are you?" I asked

" **An interesting question if I may say so myself"** came a voice in my head that i recognised to be Isobu's. **"Yes it's me and we appear to have been bound together a little closer than I previously thought"**

"Dear?" the woman asked me, snapping my attention back to the long haired brunette. I was having a hard time seeing still and everything was blurry but i could feel her and I just knew I had never met the woman before in my life

"Who are you?" I asked again "And who am I?" a valid question If I dare say so myself but the woman just took a backstep like someone had just punched her. One of the doctors stepped in at this stage and I noticed he was wearing a uniform that was definitely _not_ from my world

"I am really sorry ma'am but we did warn you this could happen . . . the treatment was always a risky chance and it's a miracle she even woke up as it is" said the doctor, trying to calm the woman who looked like she was about to burst into tears.

"Are . . . are you my mummy?" I said, figuring I was probably a young girl

"Y-yes honey . . . do . . . do you remember me?" she asked and I sadly shoot my head, I had just made a guess based on the fact she seemed to be a mother to me . . . it was pretty obvious actually.

"I guessed by the way you act" I said, I really felt bad for the woman, I had literally no idea who she was and any semblance of her daughter being me was long gone . . . because _I_ was me.

"Y-you are . . . you are Nagisa Shikorama" the woman said shakily as she sank to her knees and held my still bound hand. "You are a bright and cheery six year old girl" she said as tears rolled down her eyes "and you are my daughter" she was barely containing herself

" **Ask her to check your stomach"** said my partner in crime as I gave him a quizzical thought. **"Sometimes we bijuu are sealed into living people . . . I've been sealed into others before . . . the seal should be on your stomach and it would be visible"** explained the turtle

"Mummy . . . can you lift my shirt and check my stomach for me? It feels odd" I didn't lie, but my whole body felt . . . odd . . . my stomach just felt spiritually heavy . . . don't ask, I don't understand it myself but I suppose living twenty years without having some massive monster sealed in you would give you an odd sensation when you finally got one.

My mother looked at me and then down to my stomach, with trepidation she reached over and slowly began pulling the hospital gown up. The men in the room quickly turned around to preserve my privacy but i'd probably have not noticed as I was also staring in trepidation at my stomach. I am not sure what i expected to see but I saw the seal that Isobu told me to find and so did my 'mother' because, as soon as she saw it, she started backing up.

"No no no no no no! This can't be happening to me! My baby! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY BABY" the woman screamed at the doctor as a wave of sheer unadulterated killing intent forced me into the mattress I was laying on

"We did not put it there ma'am! I swear it! We knew nothing!" the doctor exclaimed from a kneeling position on the floor, his arms raised in defence of the woman's lethal aura. Fortunately the doctor was spared . . . I'm not sure I would be getting that luxury as the woman turned her attention back to me . . . and my exposed stomach

"I know some people dear . . . don't worry about a thing, we can extract that monster from you and I can have my beautiful baby daughter again!" the woman said, a degree of madness in her voice as she pulled an arrow head shaped knife from seemingly nowhere and cut my restraints before grabbing my wrist and hauling me out of the hospital bed at a run . . . I struggled to stay on my feet as I was certain I would get dragged along the ground if I didn't keep up.

My legs and lungs were burning, my feet bleeding from whatever it was i was ripping them to shreds on while my 'mother' made her mad dash and we had finally stopped in front of two guys in black cloaks with red cloud on them . . . one of whom looked like he was going to kill both of us when my 'mother' called out a name.

"Akatsuki! Please! My daughter has the seal of one of them monsters and I was told you people know how to remove them, extract them! Can you extract the monster and give me back my daughter? I looked at the two people, one of them was a dark haired boy of about thirteen or whilst the other one looked like an anthropomorphic shark or something of the like, he was also toting a giant, bandaged wrapped sword over his shoulder

" **Kid, the extraction process is always lethal to the host . . . and I have a bad feeling about what these people want to do with me when they have me . . . almost a, you have the better of it because you will be dead, feeling"** said Isobu inside of my head

" _Well then, how do you propose I escape? I'm apparently six, my feet are bleeding and I don't think I could run fast enough to escape their walking speeds even if I had shoes and spare energy"_ I said back

" **Chakra kid, it's a mystical magical energy force that I happen to be made of, I haven't got as much as some of my brothers but I have enough to help you get away . . . focus on the energy and put it into your legs"** before I had the chance to react, my whole world faded to black once more but this time it changed and soon I was lashed to a cross in a wide open clearing whilst everything was red tinged. Before me stood the dark haired boy.

"I feel sorry for you girl but I must do my job" the boy said as he stalked towards me, a sword in his hand. To say my eyes widened with absolute fear was an understatement but then I remembered how I got out of the blackness and realised, I was trapped in this world too . . . maybe I could repeat the trick? So I imagined . . . something, anything . . . at that time I was kinda hungry and wanting a banana.

"What is this?" asked the boy from the other end of my closed eyes and I distinctly heard Isobu laughing. When I opened my eyes and saw what had elicited the comment from the boy in front of my, I couldn't help but give a short giggle as well . . . I'd somehow turned his sword into a peeled banana . . . his face was priceless.

"Umm, mister murderer . . . if you . . . if you aren't going to eat that . . . could I?" I tried to stop myself, I did really! But . . . in the end I was in hysterics and the boy just looked at me, a mask of calm back in place as he regarded me.

"Head for the town of konoha . . . if you manage to make it there without me and Kisame catching you . . . I wish you good luck" the boy turned but before he could cancel whatever it was that he was doing to my head I called out

"Wait! . . . what is your name?" the boy turned to face me, his eyes were a deep read with comma marks in a circle around his pupil

"Uchiha . . . Itachi" he said and suddenly I was blinking and looking at the pair of black robes

" **Now kid, it's now or never, use my chakra, feel it, guide it to your feet and I'll point you in the direction you need to go . . . I know the way . . . I'll tell you how when we aren't in danger"** I listened to Isobu's directions and grabbed at a hot and fiery energy from deep inside of me, I stood up with a scowl on my face as the anger from the chakra I was using affected me too. And then, before I turned away, the lyrics to a song burst into my head and i gave a vicious grin as the shark man took his sword off his shoulder and prepared to attack

"No, not gonna die tonight i'm gonna stand and fight FOREVER!" I shouted the last word, turned me three tails around and bounced away . . . by bounced away I mean I cleared the village I was in when I landed . . . I knew I was gonna feel it eventually but right now I had to get away.

So, I bounced my way towards the place called 'Konohagakure' or so Isobu told me and in that travel time, he also told me about the girl that carried him last. Apparently her name was Rin and she was being used as a weapon against Konoha by way of Isobu being put in an easily breakable seal and given another seal to force her to travel to Konoha and one more to help destabilise the seal . . . in the end she ended up killing herself by using the teammate she loved. I remembered the story of course but at the time it was told to me, I wasn't in any condition to so much has huff in reply

It took me two days to get to the Village hidden in the leaves and it was aptly named as it was hidden in a vast expansive forest but i did point out that the leaf village would probably have been better in the land of wind or something as opposed to the land of fire which was a forest's greatest enemy but it turns out this forest is special and never used to be here . . . and it's existence is what created the village so the land could have been the land of pixies and rainbows and they'd have still named it Konohagakure. Well, by this point, the last thing I remember was walking into a clearing . . . or rather stumbling into a clearing, collapsing into the grass as pain exploded around my body so badly i could hardly breath and then a man in a flak jacket was in my field of vision.

"Men . . . won't . . . kill . . . me . . . leaf village . . . safe" I rasped out and if the man who had grabbed me said anything, I didn't hear it because I was gone after that, finally succumbing to my injuries . . . I'm actually surprised at how much I remember to be honest . . . I was not in the best of conditions.

"Welcome back to the land of the . . . blackness" said Isobu as I looked around and saw nothing but blackness

"This time I can do something about that . . . the exit won't appear right now though . . ." I said and I was a little bit worried about the inability to create an exit

"You are unconscious, your body isn't quite ready to wake up yet . . . I'm doing the best i can to mend your rather long list of injuries" As Isobu spoke, I set about making what I had recognised as my mindscape a bit more hospitable. First up I created an island in the middle of the blackness with a table and some comfy lounge chairs and a bar stocked with Fanta. Next I created calm, soothing, blue water and made it stretch into infinity all around my little island with the last addition being the Torii gate I had used to exit through, even if it didn't have a puddle of water for me to walk through at the moment, I felt better with it there.

Isobu looked around with approval and took a dip, submerging until only the top of his shell and his head were above the water.

"So you can heal me huh?" I asked as I watched the turtle paddle around my little island

"I can speed your recovery by a lot but not quite heal . . . a lot of your injuries required some outside help before I could accelerate the healing process of them" he replied as his three tails paddled up and down to propel him through the water. "So, Nagisa . . . you going to stick with that name?" I shook my head

"No, I feel like I killed Nagisa . . . killed her and stole her body . . . I don't want to steal her name too . . . I think I'll take the name Akane Tsunemori" I said and when Isobu looked at me in question, I made a folder float gently down and land on the water in front of him. The turtle magically made the pages of the folder move as he brushed up on the history of the anime character I had loved from my old life. "I feel like there was one anime that I used to really love and that it would have had information that would have been insanely useful if I still had it but for the life of me I can't remember what it was" I said as I realised that detail but Isobu only spared a glance at me as he continued reading . . . I think I accidentally gave him all of my memories.

"My guess would be that this Anime of yours held secrets about this world that you aren't supposed to know if you were actually living in it" the turtle said as is plopped into one of the cushioned lounge chairs and made a bottle of Fanta levitate over to me.

"I seriously doubt anyone could make an anime that turned out to actually be real, that would do some damage to the spiritual world or something wouldn't it?" I said, cracking the bottle open and taking a swig

"People made anime about real life events according to this . . . did that make your old life any less real?" I sighed, I was having a meta conversation with a talking turtle made of a mystical magical energy force in a land where apparently ninja used magic to do battle in a feudal japan like environment that had modern day equipment riding alongside men and women who used swords and sandals . . . literally.

"I think it's safe for you to wake up now . . . you might not even be so sore" said Isobu as he mentally flicked another page of the folder of repressed memories I had given him. "Good luck with the conversations bound to follow . . . Akane-chan" I smiled and saw the turtle give a faint smirk back as I activated my Torii stargate and walked through it.

"Welcome back to the land of the living" said a cheerful man in a cream coloured uniform that practically yelled doctor. I just looked at him and down to my bound hands. I distinctly became aware of four 'presences' hiding in the room but when I looked around I couldn't see anyone so I held that information for later.

"Would you like something to drink?" asked the man as I returned my attention to him. I nodded in response. "What would you like, I'll go get it for you" the man's smile never left his face, the guy clearly knew how to deal with children

"Fanta?" I asked and sighed when I saw the look of confusion on his face

" **Not your world kid, ask for something normal"** I gave the turtle, who was still happily splashing about in my mind scape, a mental glare

"Umm, water?" I said and this time the man nodded and left quickly. I also noticed that one of the four presences had disappeared so I looked around again and focused on the four corners of the room . . . well three know since one had left. I could, in fact, see that there was, indeed, three people standing in the shadows of the room. "Umm, who are you people?" I said but I received no response so I sighed and plopped my head back on the pillow.

While I waited for the doctor to bring me my water, I focused on trying to sense outside of the room. As I did, I felt another ten of those strange presences that were almost unnoticeable, outside of the room I was in. I also felt the presence that had been the doctor walk back towards the room and soon the door opened up and i got a look at him and the glass of water he was holding. On a whim, I imagined the water floating from the cup and much to my interest . . . the water did just that but i could feel a drain on that mystical chakra and I let it go, only to notice that the three, now four, presences had moved in and were very visible . . . I'm not ashamed to say I screamed at the animal masks that greeted me . . . the glass of water also shattered and the water went all over the doctor.

Just before the four masked men could attack, I felt a large presence, warm and inviting but powerful and unyielding. The presence opened the door and I saw an old man in a white robe with a square hat on his head in such a position so that one of the points was hanging over his face.

"Hokage-sama" the doctor said in mild surprise as the man entered the room. "I fear the girl may have gotten just a little excited and the Anbu decided she was a threat" The doctor said, it took me a moment to realise he was defending me rather than being afraid of me. These people clearly knew about my parter in crime but this doctor didn't react in sheer fear as the woman calling herself my 'mother' did.

"That's alright, how about you go get the poor girl some more water while we have a chat hmm?" the man said, his voice and measure all oozed kind hearted feelings of warmth and happiness . . . now this was a man who earned his seat at the head of the table and people waited for him to sit before they did. "What's your name little miss?" the old man definitely had a 'I'm everybody's grandfather and I love everybody as though that were true' personality.

"That . . . that depends on who you ask . . . and where you ask" I said while Isobu chuckled inside my mindscape, merrily splashing about.

"Does it now" chuckled the old man "I am Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage of Konohagakure" I nodded my head in what I hopped was polite reverence. "Why don't you tell me your story first then hmm? Some of my people found you in the woods near to the village and I was told you had some extensive damage"

" **Try, your bones in your legs were crushed and almost lost, your ribs were webbed in factures, your collarbone had three breaks in it and your arms were broken in twelve places together"** Said my helpful turtle companion

"I woke up in a hospital . . . umm . . ." I gave a mental glance at Isobu who gave his best definition of a shrug "How long have I been here for?" I said aloud

"Five days I believe" Said the Hokage

"Umm then I woke up seven days ago in a village I don't know the name of . . . I woke up without any memories of who I was but a woman who I think was my mother told me my name was Nagisa" I looked at the hokage as he studied me. And then the doctor came back in with a glass of water and I held the desire to make the water float down . . . or at least I did my damndest . . . there may have been a little levitation . . . only a little! I swear none left the cup! In any case, I practically skulled the water and happily thanked the doctor as he stood back.

"Nagisa-chan" he said and I winced at the name, a detail not lost on the old man "Might i have a look at the seal?" I suppose he was testing to see if I knew it was there but I nodded my head anyway even with Isobu's warning mental poke. I wish I had heeded that mental poke though.

As the Hokage lifted my hospital gown and looked at it, he suddenly jumped back, fear etched into his face and instantly I knew what he was going to do . . . at least, I thought it was what he was going to do . . . he was going to sell me right back to the akatsuki. With that thought in my mind, Isobu was happy to lend his chakra and I used that chakra to cut my bindings and leap out of the bed in the direction of the one window but the Anbu were much much faster than me. I was a six year old girl . . . I had the body of a six year old girl . . . but I had all my old knowledge including reflexes . . . I might be a six year old girl but I had some hand to hand combat skill so when a Kunai came barreling for my chest, I reacted. I grabbed the arm, ducked under it and struck as hard as I could into his side . . . it did absolutely nothing.

"That's enough! Nagisa . . . I'm sorry I reacted that way but why did you feel the need to run?" Old man to the rescue! I could feel a shiny pointy thing still poking into the back of my neck so I said nothing and stood stock still. "Alright, everyone other than Nagisa leave" the Hokage finally said and the old man walked over to the bed I had occupied and sat on it, patting the space next to him. Gingerly I walked over to him even though Isobu was telling me I should run. I looked up at the space that the Hokage was patting and suddenly I was staring at mount Everest but, undeterred, I began the climb. I leapt with my limited physical strength and grabbed the edge of the bed, flailing my legs helplessly as i tried to pull myself up and slowly by surely, gravity gave ground and I was sitting, panting and happy with myself for my accomplishments while the old man next to me was chuckling to himself.

"When the person who claimed to be my 'mother' saw the seal . . . she got very afraid and took me to see these two men from something called 'Akatsuki' . . . they tried to kill me . . . you had the same look she did" Any semblance of mirth that the Hokage had was gone instantly as he heard the my summary of events and I could see the thoughts going through his mind "I escaped by using Isobu-kun's chakra to bounce out and away . . . he is the sanbi bijuu . . . I thought you were going to sell me to the Akatsuki" the Hokage hung his head a little before he turned to look at me, the sun setting through the one window as we sat there.

"I would never do such a thing Nagisa" I flinched again at the name

" **Last I checked, the Kyuubi was residing inside one someone here in Konoha . . . I don't know who but were you to encounter them, I will know them"** said Isobu and that, I recognised, as his way of saying that he believed the old man

"Why do you flinch every time I say your name?" said the hokage

"I feel like I shouldn't have that name . . . I feel like I killed this girl or maybe she died of natural causes and I just took control of the body . . . I could feel my 'mother' and I instinctively knew she was not someone I had ever encountered before" I said, the truth wouldn't hurt so badly

" **Just in case it comes up, if I wanted to, I could easily break out of the seal that's on you"** said Isobu as he lounged on one of the chairs in my mindscape

" _Then why haven't you? Aren't you afraid of being trapped? Didn't you want to be free?"_ I asked back

" **I . . . Didn't want to kill you . . . If I had broken free, you would have died"** I could feel Isobu's sincerity and I gave him a warm mental smile

"So what name would you prefer then hmm?" I snapped my attention back to the Hokage and I knew he had already asked me but I was busy having a heart to heart with Isobu so I didn't notice.

"Akane Tsunemori" I said without hesitation and the Hokage looked mildly surprised

"Why give yourself a family name as well?" he asked

"It's a story . . . me and Isobu-kun traded stories while I was unconscious and one of them was about a woman named Akane Tsunemori who was thrust into a job where she had to fight the monsters people became when they became too hateful . . . she never wanted to kill anyone and as a result she was the first to bring one of these monster back from the brink and made it her mission to try and do just that so that those monsters could get the help they needed rather than just being killed or locked away for all eternity" The hokage looked at me, I could only feel his gaze as I was busy studying the ground . . . the tiles were interesting. The hokage sighed in one big long breath and I looked at him

"You get along well with the Sanbi don't you?" he said and I nodded

"We talk all the time . . . he saved my life and I saved his . . . he was a monster that just needed a little bit of a pull to return . . . to stop being a monster" Isobu was staring at me mentally . . . it's an odd sensation but it was there. "He told me he could break out at any time but he doesn't want to kill me so he won't" The Hokage looked like he really wanted to do something other than what he was actually going to do.

"Alright . . . but if it even looks like you are losing control" I pointed to the wet spot on the floor and made it levitate and form a sphere. "Good point . . . but still, if it looks like you are losing control . . . I will step in and have a seal master make absolutely certain that Isobu can't escape"

" **The old man has a point kid, just cause I don't want to don't mean I won't ever . . . there are ways I could be forced out . . . keep an eye on anyone with a Sharingan . . . they are the most dangerous people to you and no matter the seal you have, I could be forced out regardless"** I gave Isobu a mental look that told him all he needed to know **"I don't want you to die kid and I'm not the only monster in this world"**

"You aren't a monster Isobu-kun" I looked up and at the Hokage suddenly realising I said that aloud "erm . . . did I say that out loud? In any case, Isobu actually agrees with you . . . he says bad people could force him out if i'm not careful . . . especially those with Sharingan" The hokage nodded\

"Well Akane-chan . . . how would you like to be a ninja?" the old man said and I brightened up, who doesn't want to be a ninja? Even when they didn't do insane things like leap half the length of a village in a single bound or cut through solid objects with spirit alone

"I would love that!" I said a bit too eagerly.

"Then I shall arrange for you to join the academy as soon as I organise some lodgings for you" the old man said and it was decided, I was going to be a freaking ninja! Life complete! Save for the fact that now i had a mission i just thought of . . . what if I could find all the other hosts for the Bijuu and get them all together and turn back this fear of monsters, make them all nice and happy people? Isobu scoffed at the idea as well but hey! I'm gonna try damnit!

* * *

 **Well we are at the end . . . that dragged on . . . But i like Akane and what she is going to get up to in future chapters . . . so tell me what you thought i could use improvment on, what i should change for next chapter and what you would like to see more but realistically . . . this was a prologue, next up we get to the actual story and *looks at plans for next chapter* oh good heavens . . . i need to write . . . every day life scenes . . . how does one do that? where do i slot the space battleships and the giant laser cannons while my characters are taking a noodle break? in any case, hope you enjoyed and see you next time**


	2. Chapter 2

**Greetings all, this is the second chapter of Akane's Family and when things start really diverging from cannon . . . i guess i should have warned you all that this story isn't sticking to cannon eh?**

 **In any case, my usual warning applies, I absolutely such at editing and have probably left mistakes galore.**

 **Hope you all enjoy.**

* * *

So have you ever been a six year old jinchuriki who is just starting school? Ninja assassin school? The kind where all the kids learn how to utilise shiny pointy stabby thingies? Yeah . . . I may have been a touch anxious . . . but hey! I'm nothing if not good at hiding anything that isn't happiness so I walked on into the room of other, similar aged kids and looked around as Iruka-sensei introduced me, and I beamed brightly at everyone.

"Hello, my name is Akane Tsunemori! Pleased to meet you all!" I said with enthusiasm and was greeted by a room full of six year olds trying to sus me out, I may have also seen a ninja death glare or two sent my way . . . with the actual killer intent behind it of course but it was there. Over in one corner was a dark kid wearing dark clothes and looked insanely familiar as he looked out the window but I couldn't place it so I ignored it for now, I was gonna get six years with these people apparently so yeah, I'd figure it out eventually.

The first thing anyone said was another kid, with his head on the desk. The kid looked up and straight at me before uttering a "Troublesome" and went right back to napping on the desk and then everyone else dismissed me. I found a seat next to a quiet girl with pale coloured eyes and we sat there with a few mumbled greetings and when Iruka piped up to get us back into our classes, I dutifully listened.

Did you know I could commit everything to memory? Well I can, and better yet, if I don't need the information, I can file it away and look it up later or I can have Isobu-kun look things up for me if I'm busy doing life things . . . yeah he scoffed at me as well. In any case, what I am trying to say is that, everything Iruka says, I remember, every worksheet presented, I file away inside my head . . . I was learning everything at a breakneck pace due to this odd photographic memory I have. Normally with exact memories like the one I have, you tend to slip and forget things at odd periods of time . . . like how keys work while trying to get into your apartment . . . That wasn't fun, sitting there in the biting rain because I'd forgotten how keys work . . . but other than the occasional lapse in memory, I could have told you that I had fruit loops for breakfast on tuesday the twenty fifth of july twelve years ago . . . it was a warm sunny morning and by warm, I mean it had heated up to thirty degrees celsius by the time i sat to have some brekkie. Now days, I can commit everything to memory, and if I don't need to know how many tiles are on the floor, I can just leave it in my mindscape doing jack all. It's great! No more forgetting how to put my pants on because my brain decided to remember the kitten I petted once when I was two.

So, my first day at ninja assassin school ends and as we are all leaving, I notice that dark and gloomy decided to go and mope his way back home . . . I also noticed the crowd of girls following him, humming and ahhring as they did.

"Don't they know they are six years old and totally too young for crushes? That's just disturbing" I said aloud, momentarily letting my childish act slip as I watched the horror story following that poor kid around

"The same could be said for you and noticing such a thing" came the voice of Nara Shikamaru who was standing just behind me and to my right with his hands in his pockets. Of course I snapped my attention to the kid as soon as he spoke and could tell he was using the bare minimum amount of brainpower necessary to function.

"What are we two geniuses to do then? It's all so . . . troublesome" I said, using his little phrase and a faint smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "Who is dark and gloomy anyway?"

"Uchiha Sasuke" said the boy . . . I squeaked . . . don't look at me like that! The last Uchiha I met wasn't exactly the friendliest Uchiha I had ever met.

"L-like . . . Uchiha I-I-Itachi?" at this point I am fairly certain the kid had cottoned on to my absolute fear . . . even cats would have noticed it by now.

"Yeah, why? You met the guy? They say he murdered his entire clan save Sasuke and he did it just to test his skill" the Nara was looking at me sideways like he was investing a bit of extra brainpower to study my expression.

"Oh" inteligence for the win . . . I is smart. "I met him once . . . he tried to kill me" with that i scampered off and left a bored looking Nara to sigh and mutter how 'troublesome' everything was.

In order to catch up to Sasuke, I knew i'd have to do my bouncy trick but I thought, if i could bounce off the ground, what's to stop me bouncing onto and off of roofs?

" **The pain of when you land on the ground without the proper knowledge of how to stick a landing with chakra"** said Isobu, being rather helpful but i decided to ignore him for now and learn the hard way how hard the ground really is. Using a bit of Isobu's chakra, I bounced, I calculated in my head how much juice I'd probably need and used it. I got onto the roof which was thankfully flat for some reason. Next I had to bounce and land on the ground but my legs were already saw from the roof landing so I thought that, if chakra can propel, maybe it can do the opposite and allow my to stick a landing by countering the force of the landing? My head was full of science and newtonian physics by this point. Before i could properly stop myself, I took my leap of faith and, going to an immediate crouch and punching the ground with a chakra supported punch, I landed right in front of Sasuke. I erm . . .also left a few broken stones from the pathway . . . and I think I also broke a couple nuckles . . . but I landed in front of Sasuke!

"Hey, umm . . . Sasuke right?" I said as the boy looked at me with surprise etched on his face

"Hn" the boy said, recovering quickly from his surprise "How did you do that?" he must have seen the look on my face when I looked at him quizzically "How did you hit the ground hard enough to crack the cobblestone?" I looked down and suddenly noticed the damage I had done . . . and the presences closing in on me a little.

"Oh umm . . . chakra? Just move it around and use it to counter the inertia of the fall by counteracting the G-forces applied to the landing, thus absorbing the energy and dispersing it into the ground" Sasuke blinked, I blinked

"You are strange" he said before making to walk off

"Is your brother Uchiha Itachi?" in hindsight . . . I should have had a bit more tact than that but meh, it got results because the raven haired boy stopped, whirled around and glared at me

"What do you know?!" he demanded

"If he IS your brother, I need to know if you are an enemy . . . they say you are the only member of your clan he spared . . . he may have left you here as a spy and I don't want to risk him finding me" Hindsight again tells me I should have bowed out . . . the shock and anger . . . ninja death glare with just the barest hint of killing intent as Sasuke tried to murder me with looks . . . and then he rushed me in an attempt to murder me with fists. I am no 'Taijutsu' expert but like I said once before, I have a few moves hidden under my belt . . . I just need to get some practise in is all. One six year old Sasuke Uchiha, angry as all buggery, was a challenge to be sure, but he was fightable and fight we did. The kid launched himself into a leaping roundhouse kick that I ducked and when he landed, I moved forward using the momentum from my move and the shifting of my body weight, what little there was, to back up a chakra enhanced punch that connected and sent Sasuke sprawling for the split second it took him to get his legs back under me. I moved in reaction, my hands reacting before my mind could kick in, Sasuke kept throwing punches, kicks, leaping roundhouse, leg sweeps while I moved my hands and legs to block, redirect, leg check and even the occasional blow and pretty soon we were both panting and covered in bruises and staring at each other before an irate Iruka found us and demanded to know what was going on.

"Umm, I slipped on a bar of soap and uhh, sasuke slipped on a bar of soap trying to help me get back up" I said with a cheeky grin as Iruka stared at us. Iruka looked over at Sasuke to see if he wanted to add anything and the boy merely uttered a 'hn' and looked away.

"Well, I don't want to see you slipping any more soap outside of academy practise is that clear?" asked the scarred teacher and I offered a cheerful 'Hai' whilst sasuke gave his usual 'hn' and Iruka walked off, giving us one last look.

"What taijutsu style is that?" Asked sasuke after Iruka had left.

"Umm, it's a civilian style of martial arts . . . I'm not the best at it yet but still . . . the style works because it's designed to turn your body weight and your opponent's body weight into your weapons" I said, looking around a little nervously.

"How?" well, isn't sasuke the eloquent one

"Throw me a punch, I'll show you" Sasuke obliged, I caught the fist, took a half step back, redirected the force of his strike through my body, down into the ground and then forced it back up and into forward momentum which caused Sasuke to take several steps back.

"How does that work? Is it chakra?" Sasuke asked, his brow furrowed in trying to figure out my moves

"No, it's simple physics, I take the force from your blow, direct it into the ground, which then bounces off the ground and back into me, as if I had fallen from a height. Instead of letting the force sit there, I direct the force into you by using forward momentum . . . all centered around my hand holding yours because I locked my arm into my body" I could see Sasuke's eyes twitch as he worked on the problem himself and after a short while he gave a 'hn'. "Maybe we could practise together? I have no idea how to use kunai or shuriken and I have some techniques you could learn from for your own fighting style . . . maybe we could learn from each other?" Sasuke looked at me and then looked around a little before looking back to me and adding a 'hn' which meant I'd have to read his expressions a lot because he wasn't fond of talk . . . at least he accompanied the 'hn' with a nod so I took it as a yes. "Well then, we should find a training venue that is less in the open for future sessions . . . I don't think those girls are gonna be appreciative of our training together" I said and pointed out the crowd of fangirls that were standing a little bit away and glaring at me the whole while.

"Come one sasuke! Kick that little brat's arse!" I looked at the six year old girl who swore, I rarely swore even when I was an adult so to say that I was a little surprised at hearing language from a little kid is an understatement. I looked at sasuke and back at the crowd before smirking and using my bounce technique to vanish

Did I ever mention my appearance at all? I suppose I didn't did I . . . well, I've got dark brown hair now . . . as opposed to my previous blond but hey, I don't mind the colour, it adds an air of mystique to my appearance. I tend to wear it in a neat bob cut that follows my ears all very trim and neat . . . my hairdresser takes pride in her work and the beautifully straight and glossy hair she maintains. It's length is down to the bottom of my ears and no fringe with plenty of nice straight lines and well maintain simply because it's so short it's easy to maintain which means I have more time in a day to train! I don't even need to tie my hair up in anything and all it needs is a careful combing to get it nice and straight after I've gotten up and even vigorous exercise does little to mess my style. As for my clothes, I wear a Blue-Grey style of colour. My T-shirt is a little baggy but that is because I decided to start wearing chest weights while I didn't need to worry about my chest. I also had arm and leg weights which I had done into some sleeves so that nobody would see the hefty weights and I had them tied to my arms with some bandages underneath to prevent chafing . . . not that I'd need to worry since Isobu-kun can heal me fast. As for my face? Well, I had a round face . . . in fact my face was so round that on my second day at the academy, a girl with pink hair named Sakura decided to call me 'Ball Head' of course i fired back immediately by saying "At least I get a kick out of it" which gave the class the giggles and even Sasuke had a faint smirk as I took my seat next to Hinata. Speaking of Hinata, we talked during lunch . . . or well, we spoke occasionally but we mostly just ate our lunches together in companionable silence since we spent most of the school day together we didn't feel the need for extensive amounts of conversation. As for me and Sasuke, well we trained together as promised and after a week or two, he eventually came and sat with me and Hinata . . . the poor girl blushed up a storm when he first plopped down on the grass we had been seated on and I'd been worried she was infatuated as well until I realised she did that whenever anything unexpected happened so it was less of an infatuation and more of a meek personality.

I suppose i should mention the reason for the weights I had decked myself out in . . . naturally I couldn't afford such expensive artifacts on my tiny stipend that barely covered rent and bills. While I had been training, I ran into a rather curious creature . . . a very enthusiastic man who prattled on about the power of youth from underneath a bowl cut and enormous eyebrows . . . Maito Gai as he introduced himself, the man was a Taijutsu master and saw me training so he decided to help out . . . and boy am I glad. Of course he had no idea about the fighting style I used but when I told him I wanted to adapt it into a proper Taijutsu style of combat, he was over the moon. Something about wanting to help "A most youthful youth create a brand new style of Taijutsu" and he may have cried man tears when I loudly proclaimed I'd succeed using the power of "Youth, Love and hard work!" I may shake my head at the man's antics but I was a kid and I wanted to be childish so I Showed Gai everything I had, moving through the 'Katas' as he called them. Did I mention that my fighting style was Wing chun? I knew a guy who was an instructor and he taught me all he knew and I practised this martial art for fun . . . the Forms were relaxing in a way because I'd shut my brain off and just move through the forms.

Naturally I, being a ninja in training, decided that simply going through the forms wasn't good enough and I decided to do those forms on the railing of a bridge over a little river. The bridge was curved and so was the railing, providing an uneven walking platform and also prevented me from using the standard Wing Chun stance because . . . I needed space to do that. After a little while, my guard looked like the guard used by Ip Man in the movies and I supplemented stance with chakra grounding so that I could still give an account of myself despite having what amounted to twenty kilograms of weight above my own body weight distributed across my arms, legs and chest.

I didn't see the other Jinchuriki that lived in Konoha for months, in fact, I don't think I'd have seen him at all if Isobu-kun hadn't pointed him out to me . . . the guy holding the kyuubi was not what I expected . . . a kid that was maybe a year older than me and who was sitting on a swing set with a look of utter abandonment whilst all of the adults near the playground were making a show of their hate for the boy and the kids had picked up on it and were activly avoiding him . . . poor kid.

" **Such is the fate of the Jinchuriki . . . they never live the happiest of lives and many people fear them because they have mistaken them for the demon they carry . . . it is stupid, you look like an innocent girl . . . not a turtle and, while I admit the whiskers don't help, that boy does not look like a fox . . . he looks like a boy that has been kicked one too many times"** I had to struggle not to cry . . . emotions weren't my strong suit and damn was that kid sad looking. Well, I watched the kid . . . I had decided to see what he did for fun if anything and was rather shocked when a trio of kids wearing Hitai-ate walked up to Naruto and all the adults were suddenly very interesting in the ground, the buildings in the opposite direction or just the sky. I'd seen this behaviour in prison shows, this would be where some inmates decide to give a beat down on a prisoner to intimidate or worse and the guards decided to just turn around and let it happen . . . I'm not a guard and I'm having none of this.

Before I could stop and reason that this was a bad idea, going up against actual graduated ninja by myself with no backup or assistance to count on, I was in front of the blond boy and glaring at the three ninja, they couldn't have been any higher a rank than Genin so at least they didn't have a massive advantage . . . but they still had a sizable one as I slipped into my fighting stance with my right arm straight in front of me palm up and my left hand across my body palm down. If they wanted a fight, I'd at least give them one.

"Beat it brat, we are just gonna have some words with the monster here and you don't need to get hurt for it" I narrowed my eyes and looked back at the boy.

"Oi, blondie, run and I'll hold em off" I said to the kid who looked like a deer in headlights right now.

"Oh, you'll hold us off eh? An academy student huh? Ain't you in your first year and you think you can beat us? Hah!" I was getting moderately tired of this banter but I suddenly noticed that I had the attention of a lot of adults as they watched to see how this would go . . . time to make them feel guilty? Hell yeah!

"It doesn't matter who or what I am, I will fight to the death to protect the innocent people you label as monsters because that is my goal! My ninja way! Now shut up and fight me bitch!" I may have been radiating killer intent because the three genin took a step back in surprise before settling into their own fighting stances, one even pulled out a Kunai. Well . . . time for a beat down but at least I heal quickly. Of course, I didn't end up fighting alone . . . it seems Sasuke was a little more fond of me than I realised as I noticed him standing with me as we sized up our three teenaged opponents and I realised I was gonna need to use some chakra for this.

" _Isobu-kun, are you ready? Let's show this ingrates what it's like to mess with a jinchuriki!"_ I said to the turtle splashing about in my head

" **I'm ready, Let's show them the meaning of power!"** I grinned a feral grin as the first of the three charged me. He through an academy standard issue punch, I redirected it above my head, stepped in and chakra punched him in the chest which sent him back three paces and into his two buddies.

Me and sasuke fought the three teens for a while, giving them as much as we got with me taking on two of the three and sasuke taking the other one. We punched, kicked, ducked and weaved and Sasuke even used some of my techniques for redirecting your enemy's own force against them heh, quick learner. We took hits of course, especially me since I was fighting two people and weighed down by a lot of weight for me but in the end, we managed to force the three teens to quit the field and I was suitably happy for it. The end came when I punched one of the three teens into the one Sasuke was fighting and he promptly wrapped them up in ninja wire that i had no idea he had on him. The last one decided he didn't like his odds now that two of his buddies were tied up and he was about to take on two six year old proteges on his own when the three of them were having problems, he ran.

"Hey, what's your name" I said to the blondie who had watched the whole thing . . . I may have also been leaning heavily on Sasuke . . . okay he was practically holding me up by this point but I'm sure I could still walk! . . . okay I'd probably need some hospital time.

"Naruto . . . why did you help me?" the boy asked

"Didn't you hear her loser? She wanted to protect you cause you didn't deserve to be picked on by genin" I was sure that was the most I'd ever heard Sasuke say in one sentence before and it was amusing that he was defending me right now.

"so what is it you do for fun Naruto?" I said as I grinned at the blond kid.

"Umm . . . Ramen!" Naruto jumped up in excitement and I looked up at Sasuke

"Well, I could use a bit of food after that workout, you?" I said innocently

"Hn, looking at you, you probably need a hospital more than a meal" replied my raven companion. "You're a lot heavier than you look" he added

"I'm wearing weights that are heavier than me" I said and got a surprised look from Sasuke, looks like I had successfully hidden the weights after all. "And since I need you to practically carry me . . . your choice" i got a 'hn' in response and we set out after Naruto for lunch at a place called Ichiraku's Ramen . . . it was pretty good actually.

"Ahh Naruto, who's your friends?" said a kindly chef behind the counter

"Oh they are . . . umm . . . who are you guys?" I burst out laughing since I'd totally forgotten to introduce myself.

"Akane Tsunemori, nice to meet you Naruto-kun" I said, I was pretty much standing on own power by this point so it wouldn't look weird to have Sasuke carry me around everywhere. "And gloomy here is Uchiha Sasuke" Naruto gave out a 'hee hee' and a wide grin that looked very fox like.

" **I may have been wrong about his appearance . . . he is looking more and more fox-like the longer I look at him"** said the Bijuu turtle and I gave him a mental poke to not call Naruto a monster.

The Ramen, as I mentioned before, was actually pretty good . . . I know I sound like I didn't expect it to be but it was and it was affordable as well which was great since I lived on rice at home . . . I should probably get into the habit of some fish as well.

Before long, me and Sasuke had left Naruto, me promising to see him around every now and then, and we headed back to the Uchiha compound. Ordinarily, neither of us would venture near the haunted place of bad memories but the Uchiha compound had a training field that none of Sasuke's fangirls would ever go near so we used it to train . . . and relax on the odd occasion when we did such a thing together. I had been wanting to convince both he and Hinata to let the girl come with us since I already knew she needed the training but both were . . . hesitant? Let's go with that. Hinata had a slightly sad story but it wasn't that bad . . . at least I didn't think so, certainly not when compared to Sasuke. Poor Hinata had been enrolled into the academy when she failed her father's strict requirements and he sent her there as a way to try and give her the skills she needed to be his daughter. As the potential scion of the Hyuuga clan, Hinata needed to be strong but the poor girl was rather meek and doesn't do well under pressure . . . like seize up . . . yeah. It wasn't until two years after I arrived that things came to a head . . . it seems Hinata's father thought that two years of academy training and contact with other people would harden his daughter . . . I found her crying into her knees on the sidewalk some distance from the hyuuga compound.

"Hey Hinata, what's wrong? What happened?" I asked as I sat down beside her and, through teary sobs and what have you, Hinata told me that her father had pitted her against her five year old sister . . . unfortunately, Hanabi was quite the protege and was more than a match for a girl didn't want to hurt her sister . . . Hanabi had no such reservations but that wasn't a lack of care it was just a sense of loyalty. The hard part had been when Hinata's father declared she was not fit to be main branch and when Hanabi takes up the mantle of clan head, Hinata will become the branch. That's a kick in the teeth for any primogeniture heir . . . that's to say, heirs that are heirs because they were first born. It probably didn't help that Hinata _was_ kicked in the jaw . . . she had bruises all over her in fact and it made me sad to see her having been so beaten up. I had nothing when I could say to help the poor girl get over her crying but I did force her into a hug and she let her tears out all over my shirt . . . tears are easier to clean than blood I suppose. In the end I said something and it was sappy but, unfortunately, I meant what I said.

"Hinata, if the Hyuuga won't recognise you as a proper Hyuuga. Why don't you join my clan? I've already dragged Sasuke in. with just the three of us working together, we can become stronger than any clan and maybe you will be able to reclaim your heritage" the girl looked up at me, her red puffy cheeks at odds with her pale skin and soft appearance.

"R-really?" asked the quiet girl, her voice trembling from her recent crying

"Hinata, you are one of my very few friends, I have no family and really . . ." I kissed Hinata's forehead and we hugged it out before I whispered "You are more like a sister to me than a friend" and I felt Hinata hug me just a little bit tighter.

So, it actually became a lot more common that Hinata trained with me and Sasuke . . . we also hung out a lot when we weren't training since the Hyuuga no longer cared what Hinata got up to so long as she acted as her little sister's guardian when required and since it wasn't . . . Hinata had sleepovers with me and nobody noticed hehe. Oh, did I ever mention I was a chakra sensor? Yeah . . . turns out I'm a good one . . . I can sense as far as Hinata's byakugan if I focus enough and shut my eyes . . . it's good I guess but I use it like a radar/sonar sort of thing. When I'm not actively using it, I have a passive scan of everything in my general vicinity but if I 'go active' I can get a detailed scan of anything chakra in any direction I'm looking in . . . it sort of works like sonar by pinging the area with my Chakra sense and getting a good picture of what's going on even through rocks . . . yeah I agree, the Byakugan is better but it is still useful especially since you would find it virtually impossible to sneak up on me with my passive chakra sonar active but other than that . . . yeah. As for skills, well Sasuke likes his ninja wire . . . and the Uchiha have a special type of ninja wire that burns . . . perfect for sasuke and so, couple that with a fire jutsu he learnt, he is quite the ranged fighter, mixing traps with sudden fireball barrages. Hinata on the other hand found a scroll with Earth jutsu . . . who would have guess the girl has some of that in her? That and she has augmented her gentle fist fighting style with my fighting style which I have decided to call the Dragon Fist style because it sounded cool. For my own skills, I learnt lightning jutsu . . . and how to run it down lengths of ninja wire and into Kunai . . . it was rather shocking hehe. There was also another jutsu I worked out how to do, I figured it out when I was experimenting with my lightning wire technique but I'll get around to telling you about that one when I get to use it for the first time. Oh yeah, Sasuke started playing around with a Chokuto, it's a type of straight sword that I remember used to be used in Japan before the mongols invaded or something like that and then after that they switched to curved swords . . . I think it had something to do with the rise in popularity of mounted combat in Japan . . . I don't know. In any case, Sasuke learnt several Katas with his pointy stabby thing.

I suppose you are wondering how we, three orphans (although technically Hinata still has her family) managed to cough up the money for the things we used? I helped with that. I kept getting burnt while practising my lightning stuff and so did Sasuke with his fire stuff so I started messing around with different materials and mixing them together, I invented some very good firebombs that we were able to sell for profit . . . yeah it was a failed attempted to make a material that was fire _and_ lightning proof and well, eventually I created it. My prototype got treated to Sasuke's fire and my lightning and it stood the test, we ruined it, but it worked. You see, Latex is a liquid substance found in about ten percent of all flowering plants . . . or at least where I'm originally from. Turns out them Hashirama trees have a type of Latex in them as well . . . I managed to figure out that by creating a type of resin from this latex like substance, I could coat fabric with it and create a fabric/latex hybrid material that was somewhat solid, gave a bit for flexibility and was heat and lightning proof. Sasuke said he didn't need it which is good cause this stuff is hard to make. I made myself some Gauntlets out of the stuff that left my fingers open and just covered my palms and the back of my hands. I also made an armoured vest out of some of the stuff, slats of metal in a lamellar fashion and coated in my lightning proof rubberised fabric. One other source of money came from the fact that a medical bag made out of my rubberised fabric was insanely useful. Less worry about medical supplies being affected by water and so we three got a tidy stipend with these rubberised medical bags. Of course, the material I'm using was designed for armour and protection which means it's got a lot more latex and is a lot harder so that it would provide some more protection. I did put metal on my gauntlets so that I had something to use there rather than just my rubberised fabric but still. The medical bags on the other hand were a lot more fabric and a lot less rubber . . . I specifically made them with less of it cause I wanted the bags to be more baggy and not armoury. Other things I rubberised was the soles of our shoes . . . actually it helps to keep quiet when walking and not just to avoid electricity.

Come our last year, Naruto joined us in our class. We had occasionally hung out with the kid and I readily proclaimed him to be my friend but hey, i also did that with Shikamaru and Kiba but I hardly ever hung out with them. Before you ask, no I didn't wear my armour around, I decided I'd wait until I was a ninja and just keep using my 'training armour' to keep me going, it was still twenty kilos heavier than my weight, even when I got heavier due to ageing and muscles, I just increased my weights.

A lot of people noticed the three of us, Sasuke, Hinata and me, being nearly inseparable and also noticed that us youngins had some interesting inventions going around. What they didn't notice was our attitudes changed when alone. Something that we did cause we could, was to hide our changes as much as possible. In public, Hinata hid behind her zipped up jacket and blushed and stuttered and spoke so quietly you could barely hear her, the only difference was that her hair was now shoulder length. In private, Hinata walked around with her jacket unzipped to show off the rubberised mesh shirt she wore, it was only mesh around the collar bones though . . . wouldn't want to reveal anything. Hinata rarely stuttered when in private, she trusted me and Sasuke too much for that. Sasuke also spoke in full sentences and usually added words on after he had said his usual 'hn' like for instance "hn, I agree, dangos would be a nice snack" oh and me? I stopped acting like a kid so much and was only childish because that's me.

Did I ever mention my birthdate? No? Well that might have been because I never had one . . . I never asked the person who said she was my 'mother' when my birthday was and I didn't feel like one . . . so when the other two found out I was just clicking my age over with the dates and realised my birthday was not, in fact, on the last day of the year or the first, they demanded to have my real birth date . . . and since I didn't have one . . . they gave me one . . . well Hinata did . . . the day we had our heart to heart, the twenty fourth of december. Although I didn't tell Sasuke why that particular date was important, he pretty much guessed anyway. For expediency, we celebrated Hinata's birthday on the same day as mine cause, it made more sense than having to have another little get together a few days later but yeah, I was happy.

Sasuke's fan club never left him alone and, as a result, never left me and Hinata alone either, it's only when we were practically hiding in the Uchiha compound that we got our peace and quiet because the girls were literally everywhere. Thankfully, that improved our stealth, escape and evasion skills as we learnt to hide in plain sight, henge into random generic people and what not. The graduation exam was a piece of cake to be honest, make a standard clone and henge into the hokage . . . easy as pie . . . mmm pie. Of course Naruto failed but I had a pretty good idea why and that was because he had so much chakra that it was somewhat difficult to get the hang of it but hey, he tried . . . in the end Iruka failed him.

The next day after the graduation exam, Naruto was there with a Hitai-ate and everything . . . I was slightly surprised but I figured that in the end Iruka had noticed Naruto's problem and given him a different test some time yesterday but still, he was there and we were waiting for Iruka to come so we could get our team assignments . . . to say I was nervous was an understatement . . . the thought that I could be separated from my team was . . . intense, as a result I was forced to stand and pace by the window for a bit and just at that moment Sakura and Ino burst through the door. After arguing who was first through the door, they finally spotted Sasuke without me flanking him, Hinata had also quietly abandoned him to stand by me since she was pretty sure it would be safer.

"Sasuke-kun . . . do you mind if I sit with you" asked a demure Sakura with her hands clasped in front of her and a blush on her face.

"Hn" was the answer and Sasuke turned to look out the window, the look also caught my attention as his facial expression said "Traitors, you left me to be torn apart by the horde!" we had since begun referring to the fangirls as 'The Horde' to further dehumanise them . . . and for giggles. Just at that moment however, Naruto was squatting on the desk low enough to look right into Sasuke's eyes. Me and hinata watched with baited breath as the scene unfolded, and I was busy trying not laugh prematurely as the two began glaring at each other. Then, as if in slow motion, I saw a kid behind Naruto bump him which, like a domino falling, caused Naruto to press into sasuke . . . mouth to mouth and eyes wide as I counted one mississippi two mississippi three- they broke it off, coughing and gagging and I'm biting my fist hard as I try not to laugh whilst Hinata is blushing and I could see she too was struggling with the hilarity of it all. Naruto was beaten to an inch of his life by The Horde.

"Alright class, settle down!" said Iruka as he walked into the classroom "Wait what happened to Naruto?" he asked as he saw the blond kit with bruises and swelling all over him.

"Slipped on a bar of soap sensei!" I called out cheerfully from my place next to Sasuke again. The class got a few giggles save for the members of The Horde who were giving me death glares for having the audacity to sit next to Sasuke and speak in his presence. I, as usual, pretended not to notice.

"You and your soap Akane . . . alright, congratulations on-" I tuned Iruka out as did most of the class and had a finger conversation with my two companions. We had invented a style of hand communication that was based around the movements of the fingers so that we could talk in class with only subtle movements of the finger which might have been misconstrued as nervous ticks are a student being bored. For instance, three taps of the pointer finger on my right hand, a pause and another two taps told my teammates that I thought this was boring. Sasuke moved his fingers about, drumming them on the table and said

"I agree, this is boring . . . do you think we will get to be on the same team?" our faces were pretty much totally blank while we were having this conversation, so totally trained on it were we that it didn't matter much what we said, we could mostly keep a straight face and pretend not to see the other's nervous tick.

"I think Teacher is going to call out teams soon . . . I won't accept anyone else" Hinata drummed in as her fingers tapped her left fist in the sort of nervous gesture that most people were used to by now.

"I won't either, so when we get confirmation that we are one the same team together, have met our jounin sensei, and have done whatever he wants us to do for the day, let's go get something to eat . . . some place that serves tomatoes or something" I tapped back, Sasuke's eyes softened slightly as he tapped a 'Hn' into the desk . . . I was the one who thought of a tap for 'hn' since it was Sasuke's signature comment.

"Alright, now to announce the teams!" said Iruka and I waited with baited breath, I could feel my heart beat faster as names were called out. Shikamaru was on a team with Choji and Ino, Sakura got Kiba and Shino and Naruto ended up with two members of The Horde . . . I legitimately felt bad for the poor kid. Still, there were a few names yet to be called out and ours were merely three of them until Iruka called out my name and my heart was threatening to excavate it's way out of my chest cavity I was that anxious, never mind the heat flush as all my attention was focused on Iruka. "Tsunemori Akane" he said and I silently corrected him to Akane Tsunemori, he continued. "Uchiha Sasuke and Hinata Hyuuga" I breathed, Squeaked, grabbed my two besties around their necks and slammed all three of our faces into the desk as I laughed my relief out . . . I probably looked like an idiot and suddenly realised what I had done when Hinata extricated herself from my desk hug so she could rub her forehead where an errant desk had lodged itself. Her small smile was still enough to tell me she was as happy as I was, just good luck getting either of those two to show it like I did . . . trained ninja should be better than that but hey, at least the physical pain of slamming my desk into my face was mitigated by the Hitai-ate I wore on my Forehead, it was the same with Sasuke.

"Sensei! How come ball head and stutters gets to be on the same team as sasuke?! What have they got that I don't!" That was Sakura, one of the two spokeswoman for The Horde.

"Because, Sakura, those three have been acting like a team for several years already, if Akane-chan's outburst was anything to go by, they are far better prepared to work together than say you and Sasuke" Damn Iruka, apply cold water to the burn area.

" **You can do that if you want to . . . there is a source of water in that bag two rows down sitting on the desk"** Isobu-kun being helpful as always

" _You would suggest that . . . actually . . . no best not . . . I'd rather not get busted back to academy student when i've gotten this far already"_ I thought to the turtle in my head.

"Well guys, we are an official team now and I hope our sensei is a good one" I said as Iruka wrapped up and left, we still had a little time before the jounin sensei arrived and I was, for some reason, sure we were gonna be the last to leave.

"Yes . . . I wonder if our sensei knows any earth Jutsu" said Hinata who had become quite interested with such matters.

"Maybe he knows a wide variety of Jutsu and and we can all learn something" Sasuke this time, pitching in with his own thoughts

"In any case, we won't know until we meet him . . . or her I suppose" I said as I wrapped my arms around my partners' necks. "Let's just wait and find out"

* * *

 **And here we come to the end of another chapter . . . guys, this was 13 and a half pages . . . I didn't want this end up being soooo much but i just couldn't help it! I forced myself to end it here before we met the sensei and any adventures afterwards otherwise we'd be here forever . . . or at least i would.**

 **in any case. I hope you all enjoyed and please leave me a review telling me what you think i should improve, what you'd like to say changed and what you would like to see more of.  
until next time, take care.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Greetings everyone! this chapter contains a battle scene! I love battle scenes! yaaaaaay battle! other than that . . . It appears as though I'm going to be making a habit of having reasonably long chapters . . . this one is 12 pages long or something like that . . . I was originally intending to show a month or three of simple D rank missions and some day to day living stuff but . . . well . . . battle scene . . . yeah i got a bit descriptive.**

 **in any case, I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

"He's late" Muttered Sasuke, maintaining his sword with wetstone, oil and cloth.

"I'm sure he has been held up by his duties as a jounin of Konoha" Hinata's response. The truth of the matter was that our sensei was two hours late by this point . . . that's a long time, so I guess that Hinata's reasoning is that the man has been caught up in a mission of some sort . . . that's a plausible idea.

"Should've sent someone to tell us" said Sasuke, making sure his sword is absolutely beautifully well maintained. I was busy writing some fantasy epic about a woman and a sword versus a giant beast and how they ended up becoming good friends whilst fighting off evil samurai who want to subjugate the beast. Hinata was kneeling on the floor in a state of mediation but even while meditating she was still able to hold a half decent conversation.

"Company" I said simply and my two partners snapped their attention to me instantly "Jounin, unmasked, heading straight for us in three, two, one" I indicated the door as it opened and in walked our jounin sensei.

"You're late . . . waste of our time" said Sasuke as he went back to cleaning his sword

"Hn" said Hinata, imitating the Uchiha as she went back to meditation and I gave the white haired jounin a look. The man had a blue mask over his face and had his Hitai-ate covering one eye, other than that, he had a white hair style that defied gravity.

"Well . . . my first impression of you guys is rather . . . bleak" the man said, sounding more than a little bored. "Meet me on the roof" I sighed, blew on the ink so that it would dry faster and made sure it wouldn't run before I snapped my book shut.

"Shall we oblige him?" I asked, the man had already left us alone and was heading for the roof.

"I suppose we have to" said Hinata, getting up and zipping her jacket back up

"Hn, I'll bet he will want us to talk about our feelings and dreams" chipped in Sasuke as he put his cleaning utensils away and slipped his sword back into the sheath on his hip.

"Shall we take the quick way?" I asked and got two nods. The quick way to the roof was to climb out the window and run up the wall and that is precisely what we did, even beating our sensei who looked mildly surprised to see us there before him.

"Alright, take a seat" he said and we sat on the stairs, looking at him with unimpressed stares. "So tell me about yourselves"

"W-what do you mean?" stuttered Hinata, slipping back into her act

"Who you are, your likes, dislikes, hobbies and dreams for the future . . . that sort of thing" said the man.

"How 'bout you go first eh sensei?" I said, sitting on Sasuke's right who was in the middle of our little group.

"Alright then, I am Hatake Kakashi, as for my likes and dislikes? I don't feel like telling you. My hobbies? Well i have lots of hobbies and dreams for the future? Hmm never really thought about it" we all blinked, we now knew the man's name and that he wasn't in a particularly sharing mood. "How about you go next" Kakashi said, indicating me.

"I'm Akane Tsunemori, my likes and dislikes? Hmmm" I put my hand on my chin as I thought about it for a moment "My hobbies, well I suppose I've got one or two" I said, waving my arms about to emphasise my point and silently wiggling a finger message at Sasuke " _we ended up talking about our feelings and dreams_ " Hinata giggled and Sasuke smirked as they saw my message. "Dreams for the future!" I said over dramatically "Meh, I've probably got one, maybe" I swear I almost saw Kakashi's chakra chuckle.

"Alright, thank you for sharing" Kakashi's sarcasm level was over nine thousand "How about you go next" Kakashi indicated to Hinata

"H-Hyuuga Hinata . . . s-sometimes" said the girl, looking away as if she was very uncomfortable being here

"Well, what are your likes and dislikes? Hobbies and dreams?" Hinata blushed and looked away, twiddling her fingers in her typical nervous twitch that said " _My hobbies are pretending to be shy and my dreams are things I have when I'm asleep_ " I blurted out a laugh. Hinata had a very subtle sense of humor that both me and Sasuke appreciated. "Alright, you're last, what's your story?"

"Uchiha Sasuke" said the raven boy, his hands clasped together in front of his face and a dark and gloomy air surrounding him. If he wasn't acting right now, he may have been exuding killer intend but as it were, he was pretending to be hateful. "I don't have many likes and I have plenty of dislikes" Sasuke tapped a message out with his fingers interlocked " _I_ _like long walks on the beach, training to become a killer and moon lit boulevards_ " one Hinata giggle and one Akane chuckle. "I have no 'dreams for the future' for instead of a dream . . . I have an ambition, one I will make a reality. I will kill a certain someone and rebuild my clan" for that last part a thought occurred to me

"Oi sasuke, you do realise that in order to rebuild your clan . . . you need to find you a girl right? I suppose you have no shortage of specimens in The Horde" Aaaaand Sasuke's facade broke into a million pieces as the realisation that I was right hit Sasuke like a ten ton anvil dropped from the stratosphere . . . the look was priceless and Hinata was giggling without remorse. Sasuke glared daggers into my eyes. "Fine I won't be rebuilding my clan" he practically spat at me and I laughed"

"Well, you are certainly . . . unique" Said Kakashi while I quickly tapped out " _he means we are all star craven mad!"_ smirks all round. "We shall start our first mission tomorrow, it will be a survival test"

"Oi sensei, we already did our tests, what's with the extra?" I said although I had an idea that we had just been blindsided with the fact that perhaps we weren't proper genin yet

"Ahh yes, that. Well you see, the tests you did in the academy are to show whether or not you had the potential to be ninja, I will see if you can actually be ninja" Well Kakashi certainly had our attention now. "So, there are only nine slots for genin this year . . . that means that this survival test has a failure rating of sixty six percent" Kakashi looked all too gleeful at our now hardened expressions and narrowed eyes. "Meet me at training ground three at an hour after sunrise . . . oh and don't eat breakfast or you'll puke" Kakashi left the rooftop and left us to share uneasy looks between each other.

"Back to the compound?" I asked, looking at the other two and referring to the Uchiha compound that we have since dubbed simply 'The Compound' refusing to acknowledge what it once was until such a time as it could be again.

"I think that would be best . . . our Equipment is all there and we are going to need some extra preparation time" said Hinata as we scanned the village for training ground three.

"Right then, first things first . . . do we still go to a restaurant for dinner? Or do we cook something up ourselves? I'm fairly certain we can prepare something that will be better for energy generation tomorrow and I assume that the 'don't eat breakfast' rule is more to make us do this survival test on an empty stomach than out of fear of puking" I said and received nods from my teammates. "Well at least we have tomatoes at home" I got two smirks out of that and supplied one myself.

As we were travelling back to the compound, we chanced upon a lone, errant Naruto with his face in a bit of a scowl.

"Naruto-kun, something the matter?" I said as we approached him, the light 'tch' of Sasuke was not lost on me.

"Sensei is making us do a test tomorrow to prove if we really should be genin" Said the blond kid, I nodded of course

"Ours too . . . although ours seems a bit incompetent so . . . who knows how this is going to work out" Hinata hid a giggle under her hand and Sasuke was still very much interested in the architecture of the buildings to our right.

"Well good luck with the test tomorrow, Akane-chan! I'm going to get some ramen, wanna come?" I smiled at the kid, he was technically a year older than me but still acted twenty years younger.

"It's okay Naruto, we already had some plans to take care of and some last minute training" I said. "See you later Naruto and I'm certain you'll find a way to pass, just like the graduation exam" Naruto grinned his fox-like grin and waved as we walked away.

"So, are you going to wear your armour? After working so hard to make it and all" Asked Sasuke as he Hinata and I congregated in the living room of his old house.

"First thing's first . . . if I do . . . the act might become a bit hard to keep up with . . . I suppose I could use a henge . . . but still" I said, looking at the two of them. Sasuke would have no problem but the real issue would be Hinata who was in the biggest act of them all with her shy and meek acting.

"I-I won't be afraid if we have to . . . it's going to come out eventually right? If it's our sensei, it should be fine" A slight stutter on part of Hinata shows that she was still a little nervous about acting brave in public. I nodded to her anyway and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Whatever happens Hinata-chan . . . you have me and you have Sasuke, after that, who cares what other people think" Hinata hugged me . . . if I were to ever have a sister, my only wish was that she was Hinata . . . this admission is strange to me though . . . i have no idea what a sibling is since I've never had anything close to one before.

"Hn, if you girls are quite done . . . it will be sun up soon" Me and Hinata looked at each other and then took a look at Sasuke, I grinned and Hinata gave a faint, devious smirk as we surprise glomped Sasuke and drew him into a group hug with a surprised 'eep' but he eventually wrap his arms around us and gave a smirk that he thought nobody noticed.

We hugged it out a little longer and then got to work on our preparation for the morning. I donned my armour over a rubberised mesh shirt which was similar to Hinata's . . . with less give around the chest for obvious reasons . . . Hinata is a fast grower okay! I'm sure it's just a matter of time . . .

" **You are, what you would call, a washboard"** Mental glaring ensued and I may have squeaked out a "shut up!" which drew looks from Hinata and Sasuke but otherwise they said nothing . . . I had already told them of my roomie and they knew for me to slip and talk to Isobu-kun, It would have had to have been a hell of an insult. So, I was wearing a Rubberised Mesh shirt and over that went my armour. You ever hear about Lamellar armour? Popular in Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia. Mine was just a chest piece, not even really a half cuirass but a vest I suppose. It was made of metal slates with holes punched into it and laced together until they were all connected and we had a nice metal lamellar vest . . . that would clink around like nobody's business had I not gone through the excruciating process of getting those metal slats into a heavily rubberised dark red 'sheath' so that, it wasn't as flexible as it used to be, but it didn't rattle and it was well insulated from weather, heat, lightning and the occasional stabby thing. Since most shuriken did superficial surface wounds, it was easy to protect against them and heavens forbid anyone are stupid enough to use senbon. Over my right breast was a small Torii gate symbol, an exact replica of the one in my head and the one that brought me here. It was a thing we three discussed for quite some time and finally we decided that the Torii gate would be our unified symbol and we all had it emblazoned somewhere on our battle raiments. For Hinata, her Jacket now has it on the back . . . speaking of which, her jacket . . . It doesn't have that fluffy fluff it used to have any more. It's still a hoody though but hey, a girl wants what a girl want. For Sasuke, his shirt has a Torii gate on his right side breast as well but on his back is the clan symbol for the Uchiha clan . . . we both understand his desire to keep the memories of his family alive and we support him.

Thus armed for battle we headed to the training ground. Sasuke wasn't wearing armour but neither was Hinata . . . I was the one most likely to take hits since I didn't have a doujutsu although Sasuke hadn't activated his, he still fought at range while I was a mid to close range fighter . . . honestly I felt that Sasuke should have had armour and same with Hinata but . . . well, I'll talk them into it eventually. Our preparations yesterday were quite extensive . . . we went through and trapped the training ground like there was no tomorrow . . . well Sasuke did, me and Hinata went around and memorised the layout of the landscape before practising some of our taijutsu katas together . . . our style is pretty much an exact copy of each other but Hinata's is designed around her gentle fist attack a bit better.

Well, we were at the training ground and we watched as the sun rose over the horizon . . . gotta admit, it was pretty and I felt the closeness between my partners . . . I'm honestly not sure how I could make you guys understand how much I care for these two people beside me . . . and I have no idea why I do but hey, we will make one hell of a team at least, that's what matters.

"You're late . . . again" Said Sasuke as he continued maintaining his blade. Hinata was meditating again and I was writing more of my novel but I blew on the ink knowing I'd need to put the book away now.

"Ahh well, a black cat crossed my path so I was forced to take the long way around" said Kakashi, looking sheepish but his chakra said a thousand other things so I tapped out " _there is more to the story, don't pursue just yet"_ and I got two brief nods that were almost imperceptible. "Don't you think that sword is a little _too_ shiny?" he asked as Sasuke finished up his maintenance and slipped his sword back into his sheath.

"Sensei, how many days are we going to be doing this survival exercise for?" I asked, hoping he wasn't going to be having us out and trying to survive for more than a day or two but still.

"Ahh about that" said the silver haired Jounin before thumping an alarm clock onto one of the wooden posts. "This clock is set for noon, your mission is simple, you need to get a bell from me" Kakashi held up a pair of bells. "If you can't get a bell from me, you will be tied to one of these posts and you will watch me eat my lunch. You will also be sent back to the academy. If none of you get a bell, you will all go back to the academy"

"Sensei . . . th-" I started but i didn't want to finish because I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say and I shared a look with my other two teammates . . . we all knew what he was going to say if I asked. "Nevermind sensei" I said and looked back at him. He can't force that decision on us if we don't ask.

"I'm sure you have noticed the fact that are two bells by now and that you need to have a bell in order to pass . . . this means that one of you is going back to the academy no matter what" Kakashi said as he clipped the bells to his belt. My two partners looked at me and I at them and I tapped out _"He can't make good on that threat if we kill him"_ Hinata's eyes widened in shock but it was Sasuke who came to the rescue _"We don't have to, one more year won't hurt"_ I looked at Sasuke with my own look of shock, I'd have thought he wouldn't want to delay his quest for revenge but here he was putting his new family first . . . new family . . . when had I? That day when I was eight . . . Hinata my younger sister and Sasuke my older brother but he was by a few months instead of a few days like Hinata . . . with a wry grin I tapped back " _Why Sasuke-nii-chan, you do care_ " And his eyes widened in shock.

"If you three are done having your silent conversation, Shall we begin? Remember, you won't get a bell unless you come at me with the intent to kill which means you are allowed to use any tool you feel necessary" I grinned an evil grin at Kakashi, he wanted to drive my family apart. Sasuke caught on to my thought and gave a ninja death glare towards Kakashi and finally, Hinata gave in and her own features hardened into what I knew as righteous anger. "Good, you all look ready . . . let's begin"

I stood alone in front of Kakashi, as soon as he had said 'begin' we had all disappeared but now I was here and not because I was stupid. I had a plan and more importantly, I needed to test his strength so that we could get a feel for where we'd need to deploy to counter him. Superior foe strategy number three; I engage my opponent one on one in combat with my Taijutsu style Gai helped me create for my Kunai. Since I was the one with armour, I was the one we sent in to do this . . . I'm also the best at getting out of fights . . . I'm fast.

"Ninja combat one oh one . . . Taijutsu" Said Kakashi before drawing out a book. I grinned wider and ripped out two kunai, I had two pouches for them, one on my right thigh and one on my left . . . I needed kunai for Jutsu after all and these were specially designed with built in wire that conducts electricity . . . my electricity.

In an instant I was upon Kakashi, flying into a sweeping kick to his legs, he jumped of course but I had predicted this. I lept back, did a cartwheel and launched my kunai towards where Kakashi was still in the air. He grabbed both in one hand and my grin got the best of me. I don't know if Kakashi saw my grin or the wire running from the kunai to my hands but he let them go just before I could shock him, his arm was slightly scorched but still he was relatively unharmed and leaping back away from me and out of the range I could through my kunai without losing the wire.

"So, lightning based attacks . . . other than that your taijutsu seems okay . . . shame about you ditching your teammates though" well well, aren't we the one trying to ram himself between my family. I dropped my grin right proper quick and charged, throwing my kunai as soon as I got in range however, Kakashi cut the wires with a Kunai of his own. "Now what? No wire no lightning . . . that's the problem with that jutsu, it's vulnerable to enemy attack and can even be dangerous to yourself if you aren't careful" If one thing I can clap myself on the back for it's that Kakashi put his book away to fight me heh, ain't I important. I pulled out my second of three pairs of my lightning kunai, he was right though . . . I'd need more or work on how I use them . . . probably both. I knew it wouldn't be feasible to continue this strategy so we had to change plans . . . but we still haven't figured out how he will react yet . . . no, he will react like we were acting. He will avoid us while we attack so we just need to drive him into each other and the traps. I looked around and noticed a Torii gate hanging from a tree, that was where the traps started and so we needed to drive him there. I tapped a message onto my kunai _"plan seven"_ Plan seven was rather similar and involved us attacking in tandem to drive our enemy in directions of traps Sasuke had set earlier

I decided to try my next level of lightning based Jutsu and I began a series of handsigns . . . I have no idea if anyone had created this jutsu before and I'd merely chanced upon it but still, I now had lightning blades extending from my kunai and I liked the look on Kakashi's face, his was the look of a veteran seeing a new weapon for the first time and was unsure how to counter it . . . I was confident he would figure it out in nano-seconds though. I, naturally, charged . . . It's a good tactic sometimes . . . and I _was_ wearing armour that didn't look like much of anything to the untrained eye but still . . . either way, Kakashi was very hesitant to fight me in close quarters and that was my advantage, he kept back pedaling, cartwheeling and leaping away from my strikes as I lunged, spun and basically danced around with glow sticks of sizzling death.

I didn't have to make my silver haired opponent dodge me for long, twenty seconds and he got in my guard anyway but still . . . he was where I wanted him so I let him land a hit and knock me back . . . okay I didn't let him land the hit, he was inside my guard . . . I just didn't try and dodge. But in the end, he had a fireball coming towards him and the only place for him to go was in the direction of a minefield, or a forest full of traps heh! We had him now. The fireball connected with the ground and the lack of explosions or a body meant he didn't go where we thought he had no choice to go . . . above, skies were clear . . . side to side? No explosions or sounds of traps . . . behind? Nope clear too . . . below me . . . damn I'm slow for a chakra sensor but even slow, I managed to avoid his hand just as he burst from the ground to use his headhunter jutsu. Fortunately for me, I landed on an earthen platform courtesy of one Hinata and now we had Kakashi in the middle of a triple entente hehe.

"Well looks like you haven't ditched your teammates . . . so who has decided to go to the academy then? One of you must have opted to sacrifice yourself for this level of cooperation" smug bastard is totally comfortable taking all three of us on and I'm sure he could do it too.

"Y-you can't make threats if you are dead . . . and we can get a third bell if needed!" Hinata willing to sell her soul for her heart . . . oh and Kakashi's eyes widened as he realised suddenly that we weren't trying for the bells, we were going to take them from his body . . . secretly I told myself I'd prefer him unconscious and not dead and I am sure the other two agreed with me but still, aim for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land amongst the stars. I rushed Kakashi, head first is the best plan after all. I engaged him in a short taijutsu battle and leapt away just before a fireball impacted the area he was standing in but a quick substitution jutsu that I didn't even catch the hand signs for and he was in the trap forest . . . perfect but we weren't there to take advantage so . . . tactical shift!

I bounced after Kakashi, engaging him with my lightning blades so as to force him back and then I jumped back as a volley of shuriken perforated the area but neither I nor Kakashi got hit with him having also leapt out of the way. Next up was Hinata who appeared from behind Kakashi and moved through a high speed kata of the Dragon palm style, yes I named Hinata's version the Dragon's palm because she used an open handed style while I used a closed handed style. Palm strikes allowed the precision impact of chakra more easily so Hinata kept that from the gentle fist.

Hinata launched into her fight with a palm strike, her impassive face hidden behind her byakugan eyes that gave her the appearance of rage . . . for all I knew, that might have been an emotion that crossed her . . . she was attacking rather aggressively and aiming for tenketsu points that were a bit too close to vital organs. Either way, Kakashi was taken off guard by the style of taijutsu he had never seen before and so, he escaped to properly assess . . . unfortunately someone was always tracking his movements and there was a trap everywhere just in case. Kakashi landed on a twig that snapped and three kunai with explosive tags landed in the ground where Kakashi stood, exploding a moment later and followed up by Sasuke who was engaging in close range combat with his sword. It's part of the plan to hold the enemy in place long enough for me to get there and drive the enemy into Hinata who will attempt to close off tenketsu points with her Dragon's Palm that's what we did. As soon as Sasuke engaged in combat, he swept through some sword katas and then leapt back, being replaced by me and my lightning blades and I drove him back several places until another trap was triggered and I promptly leapt out of the way of an explosion that felled a tree. Kakashi landed on the fallen tree but was soon encountered by Sasuke who flowed into a brief four strike kata and then leapt off so I could engage with Lightning blades thus forcing Kakashi to leap off the tree but as soon as he landed, Hinata engaged with palm strikes and much vigor, even throwing leg kicks, little kicks aimed at the legs so as not to shift your stance at all. Of course Kakashi retreated . . . into another trap that sprung and a log on ropes swung down at him. Kakashi jumped up and landed on the flying log and was greeted by a fireball causing him to retreat again, out of the forest and into the area of safeness that held no mines, no traps just the three posts, me, Hinata and Sasuke . . . oh and Kakashi I suppose. We had just one more trick up our sleeves.

"Plan Zero" I called out, I did so aloud because my partners weren't looking at me thus, no gestures. Immediately the other two jumped out of my way and gave me a clear line to Kakashi.

" _Ready Isobu-kun?"_ I said to my Turtle companion who stopped splashing about and gathered himself up for the attack . . . I needed Isobu's chakra for this cause I did not have enough for it.

" **I am ready kid . . . show this gravity defying man the nature defying duo"** Isobu was referring to me being a lightning type while he a water type and that we can mix and match the two together sometimes for shocking results. I ran through a series of handsigns and held my arm down with my fingers in claw shapes as electricity coated my hand and crackled all around me. It was so intense that it was even visible to the naked eye and Kakashi was surprised . . . that was an understatement, he was totally . . . shocked hehehe. My gauntlet prevented the lightning around my hand to burn me and the fact that I was wearing armour stopped all the rest of the lightning from striking me so all I had to do was aim, gather Isobu's chakra to my feet, step one foot forward . . . Kakashi pulled his hitai-ate up but I didn't have the attention right then to properly take note of the new development for at that exact moment, I launched off my front foot and the mental name for my strike echoed through my head and rolled off my lips with a sound of a thunder clap! "Thunder clap! Lightning fist jutsu!" in the instant that I was traveling from A to B . . . I was unable to see anything . . . I was moving too fast to see anything so I had to be absolutely sure my target was where I was aiming and no other enemies were nearby to take advantage of the fact I would be off balanced by this attack . . . a wide open space with the enemy just standing there and nothing dangerous around for kilometers? Perfect . . . I'd have killed Kakashi if he hadn't somehow avoided my strike . . . I moved at near to the speed of light and he dodged . . . how? Well as it turns out the eye that Kakashi had hidden behind his hitai-ate was a sharingan eye . . . Sasuke's surprise was just as real as mine and Hinata's.

We'd have continued the attack but . . . well . . . the buzzer went off and we three teammates looked at each other and tapped out a conversation.

" _Well looks like we are in for another year at the academy folk"_ I signed

" _Yeah . . . we can at least have a year to improve . . . I was sure we did everything right but I guess we weren't fast enough"_ Sasuke signed

" _Thank goodness we didn't kill him . . . that would have been horrid"_ Hinata signed.

We regrouped at the posts and Kakashi met us there, his sharingan eye still out and open so I assumed he still thought us threats which pleased me to no end

"Well you three failed to get a bell . . . but I got the distinct sense you would have prefered to take them off my corpse" Said Kakashi, still not pulling his hitai-ate down "In any case . . . I'm going to pass two of you for a job well done but I want you three to decide who goes to the academy" With that Kakashi tossed me and Hinata a bell each and we looked at each other. Hinata shook her head, Sasuke shook his head and so I handed my bell back at the same time as Hinata did

"We refuse sensei, we fight together or not at all" Said Hinata as Kakashi looked at her. Finally Kakashi sighed and pulled his hitai-ate down.

" **He is the one whom Rin Nohara had end her life, I remember him"** Said Isobu and I gave him a mental thanks

"Sensei . . . do you know a Rin Nohara?" Kakashi was yet again shocked . . . I was good at shocking people wasn't I

"H-how do you know that name" Said Kakashi, taking a step back and looking like he wanted to go back into fighting mode

"Something she did before she died . . . saved my life from some people who wanted to kill me" Kakashi narrowed his eye.

"Well, you all pass" This time we were the ones shocked . . . well . . . I guess good things come to those who wait right? Well, while we were getting over our mental shock, Kakashi went over to the rock that stood a little ways from the training posts. "Those who disobey the rules are scum . . . those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum . . . meet by the bridge over there at eight o'clock tomorrow morning and we shall begin our missions proper" Said Kakashi before he turned back around, gave us an eye smile and vanished. I walked over to the rock and immediately noticed a name . . . Rin Nohara . . . of course he would be sad, he had killed her after all. Something caught attention in my mind though . . . I turned around and signed _"Follow him at stealth . . . I want to see what he is doing"_ Instantly, Hinata's byakugan was active and tracking and we took off in pursuit of Kakashi as silently as possible

I'll readily admit, this was stupid . . . even for me but still . . . I wanted to know he wasn't heading straight for T&I or something because I knew about Rin . . . that detail including that Kakashi had been the one who killed her was likely not common knowledge. Turns out that Kakashi had made a beeline for the Hokage's office and we sat at a distance with Hinata lip reading for us.

"So, how is your new squad Kakashi?" Asked the third Hokage as Kakashi appeared before him in his office

"They passed . . . although not before literally trying to kill me for fear I'd drive them apart . . . that Akane also somehow managed to utilise and enhanced version of my Chidori . . . and she knew about Rin . . . I'm also fairly certain she know how Rin died . . . who killed her" said Kakashi.

"Akane-chan carried in her the three tailed beast . . . apparently the two of them talk . . . I suspect that it told her about Rin since it was inhabiting her at the time" well that was fascinating . . .

"The other two had complete personality changed as well" The Hokage looked up as Kakashi spoke. "The file says that Hyuuga Hinata has a very meek personality, very low skills in the Hyuuga style of taijutsu and is generally considered to drop out of the academy or retire early . . . or even get a desk job once she becomes chunin" The silver haired Jounin continued. "Instead I got a girl who put everything aside and fought with a quiet passion and no worries about herself or her teammates and worked in perfect tandem as if they had fought a hundred times together . . . perfect harmony . . . I also noticed a symbol . . . a Torii gate . . . It was emblazoned on all their outfits somewhere and they even used it to mark the start of the areas they trapped extensively the day previous . . . I'm curious as to what it means" The Hokage regarded Kakashi for a long while before responding

"For at least four years, those kids have practically been living together and doing a lot of things in secret . . . It's only through the dedicated efforts of my best Anbu operatives that I have discovered anything they have kept hidden . . . and all of it you have just told me now . . . save for one or two more details. Akane Tsunemori invented a type of material that stretches a little and is insulated against the elements including water, heat and lightning . . . the kids have been making money by selling medical bags made of this material . . . A jounin has already attempted to steal the recipe for this material since Akane has also used it to make armour seemingly . . . That jounin did not find what he was expecting . . . he found three irate pre-teens and was promptly forced to flee for his life with severe injuries, after that the defences around what they now refer to as 'The Compound' have been tightened . . . I'm sure you know which compound I refer to" The Hokage lit a pipe and took a long drag of it. "Will that be all?" he asked and Kakashi appeared to take the hint.

"No, Hokage-sama . . . I will keep you informed of developments" He said and turned to leave

"One more thing, tell your students it's not polite to spy on the Hokage or their jounin sensei" Hinata stopped lip reading after that, turned to me and I nodded, we vanished and headed back to The Compound.

* * *

 **Well, here we are again, the end of another chapter and wow do these take time to write . . . It doesn't help that I get distracted easily . . . oh look a squirrel . . . where was i? oh yes, next up Team Aka-Sasu-Hina is gonna be dithering about with some D-rank missions and then . . . well who knows, maybe a C rank mission or two. by now, i hope you realise i'm taking this one down the rabbit hole so excuse me while i wave my creative license around and have my characters do things their cannon counter parts wouldn't have been caught dead doing . . . like hugging two girls and having an almost complete personality change . . . i think i like this new hinata . . . not sure yet, at least she has humor and isn't afraid to show it occasionally.**

 **in any case, I hope you enjoyed, please review and tell me what you thought i could improve, what you'd like to see changed and what you'd like to see more**

 **until next time, take care.**


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